Asparagus is a type of vegetable obtained from one species within the genus Asparagus, specifically the young shoots of Asparagus officinalis. It has been used from very early times as a culinary vegetable, owing to its delicate flavour and diuretic properties. There is a recipe for cooking asparagus in the oldest surviving book of recipes, Apicius's 3rd century CE De re coquinaria, Book III.
White asparagus is cultivated by denying the plants light and increasing the amount of ultraviolet light exposed to the plants while they are being grown.
Purple asparagus is different to its green and white counterparts, mainly as it is characterised by high sugar and low fibre levels. Purple asparagus was originally developed in Italy and was commercialised under the variety name 'Violetto d'Albenga'. Since then, breeding work has continued in countries such as USA and New Zealand.
The English word "asparagus" derives from classical Latin, but the plant was once known in English as sperage, from the Medieval Latin
sparagus. This term itself derives from the Greek
aspharagos or asparagos, and the Greek term originates from the Persian
asparag, meaning "sprout" or "shoot." The original Latin name has now supplanted the English word. Asparagus was also corrupted in some places to "sparrow grass"; indeed, John Walker stated in 1791 that "Sparrow-grass is so general that asparagus has an air of stiffness and pedantry." [citation needed] It is commonly known in fruit retail circles as "Sparrows Guts", etymologically distinct from the old term "sparrow grass" showing convergent language evolution.
In their simplest form, the shoots are boiled or steamed until tender and served with a light sauce like hollandaise or melted butter or a drizzle of olive oil with a dusting of Parmesan cheese. A refinement is to tie the shoots into sheaves and stand them so that the lower part of the stalks are boiled, while the more tender heads are steamed. Tall cylindrical asparagus cooking pots have liners with handles and perforated bases to make this process foolproof.
Unlike most vegetables, where the smaller and thinner are the more tender, thick asparagus stalks have more tender volume to the proportion of skin. When asparagus have been too long in the market, the cut ends will have dried and gone slightly concave. Meticulous cooks scrape asparagus stalks with a vegetable peeler, stroking away from the head, and refresh them in ice-cold water before steaming them; the peel is often added back to the cooking water and removed only after the asparagus is done, this is supposed to prevent diluting the flavor. Small or full-sized stalks can be made into asparagus soup. Cantonese restaurants in the United States often serve asparagus stir-fried with chicken, shrimp, or beef. Asparagus may also be quickly grilled over charcoal or hardwood embers, for an infusion of smoke flavor. Asparagus is one of few foods which is considered acceptable to eat with the hands in polite company, although this is more common in Europe.
